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| module = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename= Radio report to the American people on the Potsdam Conference (excerpt).ogg|title=Harry S. Truman's voice|type=speech|description=Excerpt from a radio broadcast regarding the [[Potsdam Conference]]<br />Recorded November 1948}}
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<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not remove the period (".") after Truman's middle initial without reading the entire article and discussing the change on the Talk page first. The consensus is currently uncertain. Thank you. -->
'''Harry S. Truman'''{{efn|name=initialS|Truman was given the initial ''S'' as a middle name. There is disagreement over whether the period after the S should be included or omitted, or if both forms are equally valid. Truman's own archived correspondence shows that he regularly used the period when writing his name.<ref name=LibraryPeriod>{{cite web | publisher = Harry S. Truman Library & Museum | title = Use of the Period After the 'S' in Harry S. Truman's Name | url = https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/use-of-period-after-s-truman-name | access-date = April 13, 2021}}</ref>}} (May 8, 1884{{spaced ndash}}December 26, 1972) was the 33rd [[president of the United States]], serving from 1945 to 1953. A member of the [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], he previously served as a [[United States senator]] from [[Missouri]] from 1935 to 1945 and briefly as the 34th [[vice president of the United States|vice president]] in 1945 under [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. Assuming the presidency after Roosevelt's death, Truman implemented the [[Marshall Plan]] in the wake of [[World War II]] to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established both the [[Truman Doctrine]] and [[NATO]] to contain the expansion of [[Soviet communism]]. He proposed numerous liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the [[conservative coalition]] that dominated the [[United States Congress|Congress]].
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John Truman was a farmer and livestock dealer. The family lived in Lamar until Harry was ten months old, when they moved to a farm near [[Harrisonville, Missouri]]. They next moved to [[Belton, Missouri|Belton]] and in 1887 to his grandparents' {{convert|600|acre|ha|adj=on}} farm in [[Grandview, Missouri|Grandview]].{{sfn|Truman Library, Birth|2012}} When Truman was six, his parents moved to [[Independence, Missouri]], so he could attend the [[Presbyterian]] Church Sunday School. He did not attend a conventional school until he was eight years old.{{sfn|McCullough|1992|pp=37, 77, 1112}} While living in Independence, he served as a [[Shabbos goy]] for Jewish neighbors, doing tasks for them on [[Shabbat]] that their religion prevented them from doing on that day.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Devine, Michael J.|title=Harry S. Truman, the State of Israel, and the Quest for Peace in the Middle East|date=2009|publisher=Truman State Univ Press|isbn=978-1-935503-80-4|page=93}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Schultz, Joseph P.|title=Mid-America's Promise: A Profile of Kansas City Jewry|date=1982|publisher=Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City|page=33}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=San Francisco Jewish Bulletin, Volume 129|publisher=Jewish Community Publications|year=1979|page=v}}</ref>
Truman was interested in music, reading, history, and
After graduating from [[William Chrisman High School|Independence High School]] in 1901,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/student-resources/places/independence/columbian-school-ott-school-and-independence-hs|title=Columbian School, Ott School & Independence High School|website=trumanlibrary.gov|author=Anon|year=2021|publisher=[[Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum]]|quote= "Readers of good books are preparing themselves for leadership. Not all readers become leaders. But all leaders must be readers." (Post Presidential Papers, Desk File.)}}</ref> Truman took classes at Spalding's Commercial College, a Kansas City business school. He studied bookkeeping, shorthand, and typing but stopped after a year.{{sfn|Ferrell|1994|pp=25–26}}
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In late 1940, Truman traveled to various military bases. The waste and profiteering he saw led him to use his chairmanship of the [[United States Senate Committee on Armed Services#Committee on Military Affairs, 1816–1947|Committee on Military Affairs]] Subcommittee on War Mobilization to start investigations into abuses while the nation prepared for war. A new special committee was set up under Truman to conduct a formal investigation; the White House supported this plan rather than weather a more hostile probe by the House of Representatives. The main mission of the committee was to expose and fight waste and corruption in the gigantic government wartime contracts.
Truman's initiative convinced Senate leaders of the necessity for the committee, which reflected his demands for honest and efficient administration and his distrust of big business and Wall Street. Truman managed the committee "with extraordinary skill" and usually achieved consensus, generating heavy media publicity that gave him a national reputation.<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael James Lacey|title=The Truman Presidency|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfkuktI-JewC&pg=PA35|year=1991|pages=35–36|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521407731}}</ref>{{sfn|Dallek|2008|pp=12–14}} Activities of the Truman Committee ranged from criticizing the "[[dollar-a-year men]]" hired by the government, many of whom proved ineffective, to investigating a shoddily built New Jersey housing project for war workers.<ref>{{Citation | last = Herman | first = Arthur | title = Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II | pages = [https://archive.org/details/freedomsforgehow00herm/page/103 103, 118, 194, 198–199, 235–236, 275, 281, 303, 312] | publisher = Random House | place = New York | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-1-4000-6964-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/freedomsforgehow00herm/page/103 }}.</ref>{{sfn |''Life''|November 30, 1942}} In March 1944, Truman attempted to probe the expensive [[Manhattan Project]] but was persuaded by Secretary of War [[Henry L. Stimson]] to discontinue with the investigation.{{r|n=zuberi2001|r={{cite journal |last1=Zuberi |first1=Matin |title=Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki |journal=Strategic Analysis |date=August 2001 |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=623–662 |doi=10.1080/09700160108458986|s2cid=154800868 | issn = 0970-0161 }}|p=634}}
The committee reportedly saved as much as $15 billion (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US-GDP|15|1940|r=-1}} billion in {{Inflation-year|US}}),{{sfn|McCullough|1992|pp=337–338|ps=: "Later estimates were that the Truman Committee saved the country as much as $15 billion."}}{{sfn | McDonald |1984|ps=: "This committee saved billions in taxpayers' money by helping eliminate waste and fraud."}}{{sfn|Daniels|1998|p=228|ps=: [[Jonathan W. Daniels]] quotes journalist [[Marquis Childs]] who wrote in November 1942 that the Truman Committee had "saved billions—yes, billions—of dollars."}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2009|p=301|ps=: "Over seven years (1941–1948) the committee heard from 1,798 witnesses during 432 public hearings. It published nearly two thousand pages of documents and saved perhaps $15 billion and thousands of lives by exposing faulty airplane and munitions production."}} and its activities put Truman on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine.{{sfn | ''Time'' |2012}} According to the Senate's historical minutes, in leading the committee, "Truman erased his earlier public image as an errand-runner for Kansas City politicos", and "no senator ever gained greater political benefits from chairing a special investigating committee than did Missouri's Harry S. Truman."{{sfn |Senate Truman Committee|2012}}
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In one of his first acts as vice president, Truman created some controversy when he attended the disgraced Pendergast's funeral. He brushed aside the criticism, saying simply, "He was always my friend and I have always been his."{{sfn|Oshinsky|2004|pp=365–380}} He had rarely discussed world affairs or domestic politics with Roosevelt; he was uninformed about major initiatives relating to the war and the top-secret [[Manhattan Project]], which was about to test the world's first atomic bomb.{{sfn|U.S. History|2012}} In an event that generated negative publicity for Truman, he was photographed with actress [[Lauren Bacall]] sitting atop the piano at the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] as he played for soldiers.<ref>{{cite news|last=Schwab|first=Nick|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2014/08/13/lauren-bacall-and-harry-trumans-piano-moment-led-to-bigger-things|title=Lauren Bacall and Harry Truman's Piano Moment Led to Bigger Things|work=US News|date=August 13, 2014|access-date=December 17, 2016}}</ref>
[[File:Photograph of Harry S. Truman taking the oath of office as President of the United States in the Cabinet Room of the... - NARA - 199062.jpg|thumb|Vice President Truman was sworn in as [[President of the United States|president]] in [[Cabinet Room (White House)|Cabinet Room]] at the White House
Truman had been vice president for 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945.{{sfn|U.S. History|2012}} Truman, presiding over the Senate, as usual, had just adjourned the session for the day and was preparing to have a drink in [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|House Speaker]] [[Sam Rayburn]]'s [[Hideaway (U.S. Senate)|office]] when he received an urgent message to go immediately to the White House, where [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] told him that her husband had died after a massive [[cerebral hemorrhage]]. Truman asked her if there was anything he could do for her; she replied, "Is there anything we can do for {{em|you}}? For you are the one in trouble now!"{{sfn|Truman Library|2012h}}{{sfn|McCullough|1992|p=425}}{{sfn|Goodwin|1994|p=478}} He was [[First inauguration of Harry S. Truman|sworn in as president]] at 7:09 p.m. in the West Wing of the White House, by Chief Justice [[Harlan F. Stone]].<ref>Paul Ham, ''Hiroshima Nagasaki'', p. 68</ref>
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==== Approval rating falls; Republicans win Congress in 1946====
The president's approval rating dropped from 82 percent in the polls in January 1946 to 52 percent by June.{{sfn|McCoy|1984|pp=64–65}} This dissatisfaction led to large Democratic losses in the [[1946 United States elections|1946 midterm elections]], and Republicans took control of Congress for the first time since 1930. When Truman dropped to 32 percent in the polls, Democratic Arkansas Senator [[William Fulbright]] suggested that Truman resign; the president said he did not care what Senator "Halfbright" said.{{sfn|Dallek|2008|pp=48–50}}{{sfn|McCoy|1984|p=91}}
Truman cooperated closely with the Republican leaders on foreign policy but fought them bitterly on domestic issues. The power of the labor unions was significantly curtailed by the [[Taft–Hartley Act]] which was enacted [[veto override|over Truman's veto]]. Truman twice vetoed bills to lower income tax rates in 1947. Although the initial vetoes were sustained, Congress overrode his veto of a tax cut bill in 1948. In one notable instance of bipartisanship, Congress passed the [[Presidential Succession Act of 1947]], which replaced the secretary of state with the Speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate as successor to the president after the vice president.{{sfn|McCoy|1984|pp=96–102}}
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Charges that Soviet agents had infiltrated the government were believed by 78 percent of the people in 1946 and became a major campaign issue for Eisenhower in 1952.{{sfn|Troy|2008|p=128}} Truman was reluctant to take a more radical stance, because he felt it could threaten civil liberties and add to a potential hysteria. At the same time, he felt political pressure to indicate a strong national security.{{sfn|McCoy|1984|pp=217}} It is unclear to what extent President Truman was briefed of the [[Venona project|Venona intercepts]], which discovered widespread evidence of Soviet espionage on the atom bomb project and afterward.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Did Truman Know about Venona?|url=https://fas.org/irp/eprint/truman-venona.html|access-date=June 12, 2021|website=fas.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Moynihan|first=Daniel Patrick|url=https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn|title=Secrecy: The American Experience|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-300-08079-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn/page/70 70]|url-access=registration}}</ref> Truman continued his own loyalty program for some time while believing the issue of communist espionage was overstated.<ref name=":0" /> In 1949, Truman described American communist leaders, whom his administration [[Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders|was prosecuting]], as "traitors".{{sfn|McCoy|1984|pp=217}} Truman would later state in private conversations with friends that his creation of a loyalty program had been a "terrible" mistake.{{sfn|McCullough| 1992 |p= 553}}
In 1950, Truman vetoed the [[McCarran Internal Security Act]], which was passed by Congress just after the start of the Korean War and was aimed at controlling communists in America.{{sfn |McCoy|1984| pp =216–217, 234–235}} Truman called the Act, "the greatest danger to freedom of speech, press, and assembly since the [[Alien and Sedition Acts|Alien and Sedition Laws]] of 1798," a "mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step toward totalitarianism".<ref name=trumanveto>{{cite web |url-status=dead |first1=Harry S. |last1=Truman
==== Blair House and assassination attempt ====
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[[Category:American anti-communists]]
[[Category:American anti-fascists]]
[[Category:American Christian Zionists]]▼
[[Category:American Freemasons]]
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[[Category:Members of the Sons of the American Revolution]]
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[[Category:Missouri Democrats]]
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